Alice and her dog saved during cliff-face rescue
A rescuer pats the dog rescued with its owner from the cliffs at St Clair on Sunday night. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
A woman at the centre of a three-hour cliff rescue drama says the emergency services that saved her were "absolutely incredible".A woman at the centre of a three-hour cliff rescue drama says the emergency services that saved her were "absolutely incredible".
Alice Munro and her dog were recovered in the dark from 70m down a St Clair cliff-face in Dunedin on Sunday night.
Alice Munro. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
Emergency services were called to Cliffs Rd in fading light at 5.45pm after reports a person was trapped after attempting to rescue a dog.Emergency services were called to Cliffs Rd in fading light at 5.45pm after reports a person was trapped after attempting to rescue a dog.
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand specialist lines rescue team from Dunedin Central worked with fire crews, police, Land Search and Rescue, Hato Hone St John, Surf Life Saving and a rescue helicopter to carry out the operation.
Ms Munro, a real estate agent, told the
Otago Daily Times
she had been rescued by an amazing group of people.
"They were absolutely incredible, all of them. Professional, funny, kind, just lovely.
"They deserve as many positive accolades as you can give them."
St Kilda Senior Station Officer Michael Johnston said one of the biggest challenges of Sunday night’s rescue was finding Ms Munro on the cliff-face.
"Obviously, it got very dark and we had no contact with her, so we sent a crew over the edge to try and make some contact," SSO Johnston said.
However, they were unable to locate her and, as light faded and blustery winds and showers set in, concerns grew about Ms Munro’s condition.
"It had been a couple of hours she was down there, so it was definitely a concern that she might have started to be getting some hypothermia," he said.
"It turned out she was able to sort of shelter herself a bit from the weather - although a concern, it didn’t necessarily impact the operations too much."
A file photo from 2007 shows the cliff area where Alice Munro was stranded on Sunday, with the location of where the rescue crew was based and where Ms Munro and the dog were. The area above the cliffs has been significantly developed since this picture was taken. PHOTO: ODT FILES
When the helicopter arrived at 7.15pm, crews used its spotlight to find Ms Munro on the cliff.
"They lined us up with where we should go off and then we carried on down to get her and then bring her back up," SSO Johnston said.
"She was probably approximately 70m down from where we went off in front of that property."
Topographic maps of the area show the cliffs are about 100m high.
"We had two of our firefighters go down, and one came back up with [Ms Munro], and one came back up with the dog."
She was assessed by ambulance staff at the scene.
SSO Johnston said it was great inter-agency effort to rescue Ms Munro.
"A good example of us working well together for that common goal of rescuing her - a great outcome."